OBITUARY

Red Chador, Muslim, Woman, Performer, Declared Dead After Vanishing in Israel

By Diana Montaño | June 4, 2018

The Red Chador, an artistic creation whose performances explored notions of political belonging and fear, has been declared dead after disappearing under mysterious circumstances late last year in Israel. The disappearance and effective death were confirmed by Anida Yoeu Ali, the Muslim Cambodian-American artist who created the Red Chador and embodied her at exhibits and performances around the world.

Characterized by her flowing red-sequined chador—the full-body gown worn by some Muslim women—and often faceless behind a veil, The Red Chador gained prominence in the global art world for using the aesthetics of religion and patriotism to challenge social and political anxieties. Often juxtaposing her eye-catching costume with a solemn silence, she occupied public spaces, from bus stops to renowned art institutions, with an unsettling visibility.

“The Red Chador didn’t provide answers,” says Pablo Delano, a Fine Arts professor at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., “But she raised important questions.” Delano recalls how the Red Chador’s 2015 performance on the Trinity campus prompted the predominantly white, liberal student body to ask, “Do I ignore? Do I engage?” One young woman, he says, was visibly trembling with fear.

The Red Chador made her debut in April 2015 at the Palais de Tokyo museum in Paris, France, as part of a group show titled “Secret Archipelago.” The durational performance first asked the provocative question “What is it you fear?” in a city where just months before, two French Muslim brothers had attacked the Charlie Hebdo magazine offices. After her inception in Paris, the Red Chador appeared internationally at the Imagine 2037 festival in Edinburgh (2017) and the Art Central fair Hong Kong (2017). In December, she performed at the 2017 Kuala Lumpur Biennale in what turned out to be her final public showing. Her most poignant performances, however, were back on her home turf – the United States, where she appeared at Widener Gallery in Hartford, Conn., (2015), King Street Station in Seattle, Wash., (2017), and the Asian Art Museum and SF Camerawork in San Francisco, Calif. (2016).

On November 9th, 2016, the day after Donald Trump was elected US president, the Red Chador wandered through the streets of Seattle holding a sign that read, on one side, “I Am a Muslim,” and on the other, “Ban Me.” This, a reference to Trump’s proposed “Muslim ban.” Some passersby–the unwitting audience—kept walking. Some took photos. A white, middle-aged woman tightly embraced the Red Chador and joined her with an improvised hand-scrawled sign: “Not on my watch.”

“There are people in this world whose very existence is protest,” says Gregg Deal, a Native American performance artist who met the Red Chador during her most high-profile US appearance, the 2016 “Crosslines: A Culture Lab on Intersectionality” group show hosted by the Smithsonian Institute’s Asian Pacific American Center. The performance went through several revisions before being approved by the Smithsonian. Adriel Luis, a curator for “Crosslines,” says negotiating the performance was a lesson in “trusting” that an audience can handle the subject matter. During the show, in which the Red Chador stood surrounded by 99 American flags, a self-identified Marine approached a Smithsonian staffer. “He thanked her and told her that he went out to fight for the country so that things like this could happen,” recalls Luis.

The public’s unexpected reactions to the Red Chador gave her performances their meaning. At a San Francisco Democratic campaign event with Bernie Sanders, two white “Bernie bros” yelled at her to leave. A white veteran on the street demanded she stay away because her presence was triggering. Later, another man ran up behind her wielding what looked like a torn-off windshield wiper (she was unharmed). And while her identity—Muslim, woman, Cambodian, American—was rooted in creator Ali’s life experience, its significance crossed borders. In Hong Kong, where the pro-democracy “Umbrella Movement” emerged in 2014, her Muslim identity was less relevant. “They didn’t recognize her as that object of fear,” says Anita Archer, director of the Pegasos 5 art agency. Archer attended the 2017 Hong Kong performance where the audience was invited to pick up protest signs and march with the Red Chador. “They saw the universality of that message—of her as a person who has the right to say I will not be treated this way.”

According to Ali, the Red Chador was last seen on December 2, 2017, at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. They had attended a Palestinian Performing Arts Network conference in Ramallah, Palestine, and were headed back to the US. Ali reports being harassed throughout the trip—strip-searched by security and forced to check carry-on items before boarding her flight to Tel Aviv, detained for three hours by Israeli immigration officers upon initial entry, and questioned upon departure. When Ali arrived in the US, the luggage containing the Red Chador never arrived. Airline officials have not been able to recover the “lost” luggage. Four months of not knowing has been too much to bear. “We’ve decided to officially declare her disappearance a death,” says Ali. “This will allow me and the public who interacted with her an opportunity to mourn and honor her legacy.”

Aside from Anida Yoeu Ali, the Red Chador leaves behind her Studio Revolt creative team and fellow artists around the world. “I had unfinished business with her,” says Gregg Deal, the Native-American performer who exhibited alongside her at the Smithsonian, mourning the impossibility of future collaborations. She also leaves behind a well-documented body of work that will continue to impact audiences and ask important questions.

A memorial service commemorating the life and work of the Red Chador was held on May 5^th as part of the “Then and Now” exhibit at the Asian Arts Initiative in Philadelphia. The exhibit will remain open until August 17^th. Ali has also launched TheRedChadorIsDead.com, a “digital altar” that will chronicle 99 moments of audience experiences with the Red Chador. Memorial services are also planned for July in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and in Adelaide, Australia, later in the year.